Clay Daly continued his successful season behind Pete Van Iderstine’s No. 32b Super Late Model with a convincing victory in Saturday night’s 32nd annual Maselli and Sons Classic at Petaluma Speedway featuring the West Coast Shootout Late Model Series.
The twenty-two year old from Hollister led the field to the green flag for 35 laps of action beating out Salinas’ Bobby Hogge IV in an eight lap dash. Daly got the jump when the green flag dropped with Hogge taking second place. John Silva, Nick Bartels and Anthony Restad completed the top five when the first caution came out for the night when Bakersfield’s Rob Sanders came to a stop in turn four and ended his night.
Following the restart Hogge battled with Silva while Bartels tried to hold off Santa Rosa’s Anthony Restad. Silva got out of shape exiting turn two allowing Hogge to pull away. Bartels, Restad and Morgan Hill’s Jeff Decker were able to get by Silva. Decker and Restad battled for fifth while Daly and Hogge raced through lapped traffic. Racing came to a stop with accidents in turn two and four. Running in third place, Nick Bartels was moving through lapped traffic when a car came to a stop exiting turn two and collected him. Bartels was pulled into the infield and later pushed off to rejoin the pack. Exiting turn four Jason Papich suffered from a flat tire and collected Hollister’s Andy Obertello. Both drivers were able to make repairs and join the field.
Daly led the field back to the green flag with Hogge, Decker, Restad and Mike Kirby running in the top five. Sitting in sixth was Richard Papenhausen with lapped traffic placed between the top five. Cars scrambled and went three wide down the backstretch, Papenhausen moved down the track to avoid the wall and collected John Silva and Andy Obertello ending Silva’s night.
Racing resumed with Jeff Decker taking over second place and Restad battling with Hogge and overtook third place. Behind them Nick Bartels was charging forward coming from the back of the pack after being involved in a caution. Bartels ran the high side and found himself sitting in sixth place with the laps winding down.
Running in fifth, Kirby battled with Hogge for fourth and threw his Laney Performance No. 5k into turn one bicycling around the turn with only his right rear on the ground. “I hit the gas and stayed on it, if I was going over I was going over,” stated Kirby. His right rear caught a rut in turn two sending his car in the air and landed on all four tires and overtook the position for the time being.
A final caution was brought out by Richard Papenhausen setting up a four lap shootout. Daly went uncontested the final four laps winning his first ever West Coast Shootout feature event. The win was his fourth on the season behind the Van Iderstine owned No. 32b.
“I didn’t want to see another caution,” stated Daly in a post-race interview. “We had a good car and it feels great to finally get a West Coast Shootout victory and add my name to the list of Maselli Classic champions.”
Finishing second was Jeff Decker, the 2011 Petaluma Speedway Late Model Champion. Restad held on fourth with Hogge trailing him with a flat left front tire. Kirby, Nick Bartels, Rick Shafer, Bill Bartels, Jason Papich and Shawn Deforest completed the top ten.
Chris Kearns Presents and the West Coast Shootout Late Models would like to thank Hoosier Tires, Pro Power Racing Engines, DFT Transportation, RoadRunner Fabrication, Dart Machinery, Manley, CP/Carillo, Isky Racing Cams, Five Star Grafix and Matt Mussell Designs for their support for the 2011 West Coast Late Model season.
The series will be at Bakersfield Speedway for the Budweiser Nationals October and 7th and 8th and will complete their season in Phoenix, Arizona November 4th and 5th for the Desert Classic at Canyon Speedway Park. For more information on the series visit, www.WestCoastLateModels.com.
